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The
Muslim historian Al-Mas’udi wrote: The wise have said: a sign of the
fidelity of a human being and his adherence to pledges is his
yearning for his brethren as well as his yearning for his homelands.
And one of the signs of maturity is a person’s longing for the place
of birth… And another person said: God developed the countries of
the earth through (human) love for the homelands, and so, a sign of
benevolence… is love for the place of birth.
People
through an innate instinct have a sense of belonging to a homeland.
This belonging is nurtured through experiencing life on the soil of
a city or a village or a homeland. Building life through toil,
supporting a family and shouldering a responsibility in honoring a
homeland cements a sense of belonging. Faith in God and
righteousness make belonging to a homeland a more noble sentiment, a
truer feeling; corruption, conversely, alongside other factors, may
diminish a human being’s sense of belonging.
Many,
many Palestinians-- and indeed many human beings-- have experienced
uprootment and displacement from a homeland. For many human beings
that chose settling in another homeland the choice was voluntary.
For many Palestinians Zionist seizures of their land, their farms
and cities, their orchards and ancestral dwellings faced them with
forced deprivation of their ancestral land.
The
present writer is an example of multitudes of Palestinians who know
of their entitlement to Palestine, or to the city of Jerusalem-- but
who also recognize that their uprootment was an affliction that
sometimes visits people on their journey in life. In effect,
visiting one’s homeland is presently possible as a tourist: similar,
for example, to a citizen of Japan acquiring the right to visit
Russia after getting a visa from the embassy of Russia in Tokyo.
But
disinheritance does not mean the cancellation of a right or a group
of rights; nor does dispossession have the effect of legitimizing
usurpation; nor does force have the impact of redefining a structure
of rights and obligations related to rights to dwelling, property,
secure life, freedom from oppression, entitlement to worship in
Allah’s sacred sanctuary-- i.e. the Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem.
It is
arguable that in each instance of human dispute over protected or
violated human life, honor, property-- it is morally and rationally
possible to distinguish between justice and injustice, between
righteous conduct and oppression, between lawlessness and respect
for people’s rights and obligations. It is also arguable that by
virtue of preponderance or inferior power the stronger have been
able to dictate the resolution of a dispute: but the dictation of
the stronger or the protests of the weaker do not necessarily
constitute what is just. Civilized conduct attempts to defend what
is right in addition to affirming power and force.
The
beginning of the article speaks of integrity as related to love and
yearning for homeland: Palestinians who derive their sense of
belonging from faith in God almighty will build their homeland even
in dispersal and will struggle to return-- and will also honor,
build and defend their homeland of migration.
November 28,
1999
Mr.
Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages
the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born
in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and
Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates
from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on
Islamic thought and studies.
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